The Balance of Power

We were still in the thrall of a feels-like-summer-but-it’sactually-October fall when we gathered our panel of advisors at Alberni Street’s Archer restaurant to discuss this year’s Power 50 list. We had the room to ourselves and our discussion was long, broad and frank, but it always came back to our central question: What does power mean in 2023?

For the team here at Vanmag, power is the ability to move the dial in our city—whether you’re the head of a telco that’s making waves in our health-care system, or the social housing developer who’s creating much-needed dwellings for our housing-starved city. And as we sifted through the hundreds of names that were put forward for consideration that night, it became clear that a theme was emerging: over the past year—or even less—there has been a big shift in power in this city.

Some of the new power players were immediately obvious. In a result Vancouver hasn’t seen in several election cycles, mayor Ken Sim delivered a full slate of councillors to city hall with his ABC party. Longtime Power 50 regular David Eby, with his reputation for getting things done, is now steering the ship—our province—from the top post after years of being the guy standing a few steps away from it.

There’s fire chief Karen Fry, the first woman to hold that role in Vancouver, who’s made complicated calls on the encampment on Hastings. And there’s veteran arts administrator Hank Bull, credited for being the force behind getting the Vancouver Art Gallery the extra funding it needed to build a new home.

And speaking of that 25-degree October we all experienced? Well, another theme was clear that night: while every stripe of politician now includes some form of climate mitigation strategy on their platform, we’ve yet to see decisive leadership for our climate emergency. We’ve lived through floods, fires, atmospheric rivers, heat domes—and unseasonably warm Octobers—but as you’ll see from our number one on the list this year, it’s obvious that the most powerful force among us is not taking direction from anyone. For all of our sakes, here’s hoping that by 2024 and beyond, that number-one player on this year’s list has some real social and political power rising up to push against it.